Luke 13:1-9, Olivet Discourse Timing Keys (3)

When Jesus mentioned Daniel and “the abomination of desolation” was He talking about 70AD or of the time around His return?  We believe clearly it is the latter.

·       In 70AD the Romans did not come in and stop the sacrifices and introduce abominable sacrifices.  When they entered Jerusalem they knocked down and then burned the temple and the city.  Any “desecration” came later, in 130AD, when Rome rebuilt the city with pagan temples.

·       Dan. 9 speak of the “middle of the week” (i.e. after 3 ½ years) and Dan. 12 of a similar time (1290 days, 3 ½ yrs plus 30 days).  The Roman siege of Jerusalem under Titus lasted about 5 months.  There was not a lengthy time of persecution “such as the world has never seen” (Mk. 13:19).

·       Jesus said that before this event the gospel would be preached to “all the nations” (Mk. 13:10).  This clearly had not happened in 70AD.  Some Supercessionists teach that Paul’s words in Col. 1:6,23 indicate that he believe it had reached the whole world.  Yet, Paul also spoke of his desire to go to Spain where the gospel had not been preached (Rom. 15:24).  Paul, who preferred to preach where the gospel had not been preached, had not been to every nation (north Africa, or the areas where the Spirit forbade him to preach in Ac. 16:6-10).  We can say the gospel was going to all the world in terms of Jews and Gentiles.  But Jesus is making a promise that covers the world just as His command to His disciples covered the world (Mt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).  It makes much more sense to refer the fulfillment of Jesus’ words to Paul’s statement in Rom. 11:25, that Israel would remain in their partial blindness “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”  The gospel was not preached in every nation in 70AD.

There are other arguments that can be made on this issue when we work our way through the Discourse.  In the remainder of this post I do want to establish that Jesus did, more than once, make predictions and warnings concerning what was going to come upon Israel in 70AD.  For example …

·       Luke 13:1-5: When Jesus twice said to the people, “unless you repent you shall all likewise perish,” I believe He was speaking of the coming judgment of 70AD.  My reason is because of the use of the “fig tree” in 13:6-9, that the nation had one more year of His ministry to repent.

·       Luke 19:41-44 is a precise warning of 70AD, and it comes as Jesus’ enters Jerusalem, bringing an end to the “one more year” of Luke 13.

·       Luke 21:24: I believe this is also a warning of 70AD.  This is in Luke’s version of the Olivet Discourse, and Lord willing we will consider this in the next post.

Here is a chart here I hope will help with the timing of Jesus’ Discourse, with the critical event, the Abomination of Desolation, in the middle of Daniel’s 70^th Week.